Helon Habila

We had the generation of Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Mabel Segun and Flora Nwapa. Ben Okri was a burst of fresh air when it seemed as if we had a stalement in the industry.

But now we are coming out again in full force. Lest we run the risk of undervaluing what we have, Ill take some time to showcase, the new generation of Nigerian writers. Let us be proud of what we have and take some time to buy their books and read them.

Helon Habila

Pictures: He grew up in the town of Gombe in northern Nigeria just at the end of the civil war. He studied English and literature at the University of Jos. While working as an assistant lecturer in English at Federal Polytechnic in Bauchi, he wrote a biography of the chief of his hometown, which was published by Tafawa Balewa Press in 1997.

In 1998 he moved to Lagos, where he was the arts editor at the Vanguard paper. He continued to work on his poems and short stories, and in 2000 won two of the country's biggest awardsthe Musical Society of Nigeria (MuSon) Poetry Festival Prize for his poem "Another Age" and the Liberty Bank Prize for his short story "The Butterfly and the Artist."

That same year, Habila entered a short story for the Caine Prize for African Writing, and won the $15,000 award. His book Waiting for an Angel was published in 2003 and won the Commonwealth Prize for Best First Book, African Region, in 2003.

His second book published in 2007  Measuring time is set in Northern Nigeria and is about twin sons whose mother dies while they are still young. Lamamo who is bold and extrovert becomes a freedom fighter while Mamo who has the sickle cell disease doesnt expect to live long and just measures time. He later becomes a scholar and writes his family history.

Helon is currently a fellow at the University of East Anglia.